Brrrr

This December, we have been having temperatures that are more typical for January.  Today we are slated for a high of -3.  Yes, negative three.  The windchill puts us around -30.  I made the executive decision that we will not be leaving the house today.  Luckily, Brian's down in Indiana for work, so he hasn't been having to commute in this the past few days.

I am finally done shopping for christmas and as soon as my last two packages decide to show up, I can finish my wrapping too.  We decided that there was way too much commercialism and stress going on and we would not be doing presents for adults this year.  We still got harassed so there are a couple things coming to grandparents.

Everett is in a love/hate relationship with preschool.  He loves being there but insists that he hates it.  He's always happily playing when Callum and I show up to get him at 3pm.  He has lots of friends there but still has to always be with his best buddy, Kenleigh.
He's recently discovered a love for Harry Potter.  I got a bunch of the DVDs for $2 each on Black Friday at Walmart so we've watched the first two and he wants to watch the third, but I can't remember at what movie they start getting rather scary.  I will have to do a little review reading today to see if 3 is ok or if we'll have to rewatch 1.
He had a great birthday party at splashland this year.  He invited 5 of his friends (and their siblings) and had pizza, cake, and lots of water sliding.  He even got to play in the arcade afterward and discovered air hockey and I managed to win him a packers teddy bear from the claw machine.

Callum is a fiesty, loving little bug.  Well, not really little at all, actually.  He talks all the time, is still obsessed with tractors, and loves wrestling his brother at every opportunity.  He is really attached to daddy right now and whenever he's home, Callum's on his leg or lap.  He wanders around the house at his leisure, bringing toys downstairs, reading books, and watching Mighty Machines.

Boy #3 is wiggly and makes me eat way too much chocolate.  I think he's going to be a pretty easy-going guy.  At both ultrasounds we've had, he's just chilling with his arms behind his head.  Relish it while it lasts, kid.  You're quickly running out of stretching room.

Here's the belly on Monday at 22w2d

Biggest Blog Break Ever

*peeks in from corner* Hi.
I'm back.  At least for now.  That was quite possibly the longest blog break ever, but I just lost all motivation.  It was a long, busy summer and fall with a lot going on.  I'm not even going to try and recap.  ha.

But here's what's up now.

- Everett turns 5 years old in 8 days.  8. Days.
- Our house is still on the market.  Over a year after first putting it up for sale.  Yes, it sucks.
- I'm pregnant.  Ya know.  Almost 20 weeks.

- I became obsessed with Doctor Who.
- Everett started preschool and goes two full days/week.
- I've killed my third laptop charger.  A new one should be arriving tomorrow. lol
- I made the boys some minions hats that might possibly be the biggest knitting hit I've ever had.

- Sidenote: the boys have gotten huge.  Like, they're monsters.
- Callum talks non-stop (mostly about tractors) and sings songs.
- We took a week-long vacation to California this fall and the boys are obsessed with the Golden Gate Bridge.
- Brian went to Portland and caused an avalanche.  Just a baby one.
- I just remembered I need to order christmas cards...

Modern Silhouettes Using Photoshop

Craft win today!

I have long admired projects involving children's silhouettes and decided this week that I was going to make something to fit my new grey and yellow bedroom decor.  I am beyond thrilled with the way these came out so I have to share my process.

Step 1: Take a profile picture of your child.  I found it worked better against a plain wall than against a window.

Step 2: Open picture in photoshop (I have CS2).

Step 3: Follow this tutorial to outline the profile and create the silhouette with a transparent background.

Once I had the silhouettes made, I saved them as psd files just in case I wanted to use them again later.

   - Side note: I also flipped Callum's profile horizontally since I had them both facing the same way for the pictures and did not want them so in the final product.

Step 4: Find a nice background.  I simply did a google image search for yellow chevron and found a site that had background for cell phones.  The resolution was plenty for a 5x7 print.  Since I'm only creating these for personal use, I have no problem just using a background off google.
Create a new project in your desired size (I did 5x7s) and paste the background onto it.

Step 5: Move the profile outline onto project with the background.  Save as a new jpeg and you're done!  I just printed the projects on regular paper, but I think it would turn out even better on photo paper.

End result:

Don't worry, I'll be hanging them on the wall as soon as Callum's done napping and I can hammer without terrible consequences.

Reorganized Toys for May

Thank goodness I agreed to link up to this "Play Shelves in May" bloghop.  It forced me to go through toys again, throw some up in the attic, and reorganize.  I always feel much better when I do and it really does work to get the boys interested in old toys again.

Here's what I started with.  Yes, it's a disorganized mess.  For the most part, I let them do what they will with the toys as long as they're not all over the floor.  Oh, and sorry for the smudge I didn't notice until I uploaded all the pictures...

This is our living room toy shelf.  Next to it, you will see an overflowing box of random stuff they bring down from the playroom and I shove in there until I bring it all back upstairs again.

Top shelf: Lincoln Logs, Imaginext Pirate Ship and Space Shuttle

Middle: M&D shape sorter, my homemade color matching activity, stacking blocks, M&D clock, 2 puzzles

Bottom: M&D cutting food plus some extras, tinker toys, tea set (in green bag), blocks (in red bag)

Messy train table

Yeah.....

Upstairs playroom:

Ever since I got a new Ikea shelving unit, this has been sadly empty.

M&D dollhouse, chalkboard/easel, reading corner

The new unit

Ikea bead track, puzzle, MORE toy food..., animals and people, dress up stuff, vehicles

Tools, puzzles

Ok.  Sorry you had to see all that.  I threw a lot of stuff into the attic and feel much better now.  Here's our current May set-up.

Removed puzzle, added M&D cutting food up here.  Put doctor kit and some buckets on top.

Put the tea set and more food from the attic in the firsst box, added some animals and took some away, added a couple vehicles from the attic

I removed some of the trays for use downstairs and now the toy organizer doesn't look so sad anymore.  Brought massive annoying tractors a friend "gave us" up here.

I always feel better with a neat train table. LOL

The parking lot (and the empty box for the inevitable migrating toys)

I don't remove all the toys because they're still really enjoying some or I still want to work with some.

Top shelf: Tonka race track, Pirate ship and space shuttle

Middle: M&D shape sorter and clock, Combine, Jungle Junction bus (which was in the mess on the floor before)

Bottom: Mr Potato Head, random tractors (minor obsession of C's), roll around balls and light up spiky balls, xylophone

Here's awesome Nicole's post and amazing Jayne's (they started this whole shebang).

Comparisons by Age v.2.0

A long while ago, I posted pictures comparing Everett to both Brian and me.  Today, a friend mentioned that she thought a baby picture I posted of myself on facebook looked just like Callum and I realized that I never did any sort of comparison pictures with the younger offspring.

So without further ado, the updated comparisons:

6 Months
Brian -- Everett -- Beth -- Callum

8 Months
Brian -- Everett -- Beth -- Callum

1 Year
Brian -- Everett -- Beth -- Callum

2 Years
Everett -- Brian -- Beth -- Callum

 What do you think?  I can now definitely see the resemblance between Callum and me even though I wouldn't have said so without looking at the pictures.  I think Everett looked identical to Brian until around a year and then started getting his own look.
Fun, eh?

Bean Bag for Stuffed Animals

Pinterest....oh pinterest....
One idea that came up was using a bean bag chair cover to store stuffed animals.  Well, walmart didn't have any cute covers AND they were $15.  But an adorable patterned flat twin sheet was $4.50.  Yep.  You know what happened there.
I tortured myself by making a bean bag myself.
I generally used this set of pattern and instructions but made a couple edits.

It took me a while to figure out that, Yes, it is folded on both the left AND the bottom.  I'm bad with spatial stuff.  I blame core+ math...

This is what one panel looks like

After I cut out the six panels, I also cut out two circles using a trash can as a template.  (Yep, I'm cool like that.)

Then I cut the larger circle in half and stuck a zipper in there.  Then struggled my way along until I got it all sewn together.

But it's done and I think it looks pretty cute!  Here it is with the stuffed animals from the playroom only (not the bedroom or the attic).  Yes, we do, in fact, have too many stuffed animals...

Last Day of Winter

Psych.  Or continual snow and bitter cold.  You know, same diff....
Anyway.  Pictures of the offspring.

Nice, sweet Everett

Does anyone else see complete mischievousness in those eyes??? Just me???? 

Goofball Everett 

Just Callum 

Callum's birthday party

I just realized that I never blogged about Callum's birthday party!  Two weeks ago, we had grandparents, aunts, and uncles over to celebrate Callum turning two!  Of course, it was a tractor party.  Duh.

Here's this birthday's cake:

Auntie C face-timed in from Kansas just in time for cake.

Callum was not entirely sure what to think about the whole singing deal and put on a great pout face that you can see in the post from a couple days ago.

He loved his cake, but didn't want to eat any.  He, instead, wanted to move the tractors all over it and make them move the chocolate rocks around.  Whatever kid, it's your party I guess!

Everett joined in.

He also ate the chocolate rocks.

He got some fantastic presents including angry bird crackers, goldfish, pajamas, toys, blanket, stuffies, the whole works.  He was a happy camper!

As soon as I write it down...

Of course, it changes.  I gave in today.  After barely sleeping for two nights (and waking up a whole lot for the past two weeks) and dealing with an hour of screaming at naptime today, I gave in and gave C his nuk.  He immediately went to sleep.
The only way I could get him to sleep at all last night once he woke at midnight was with tylenol, so I think he's teething horribly right now.  So I give in!  I may not be the strongest mama in the world, but I don't care.  If this gets us all more sleep, I'm going for it right now.  We'll try "operation: throw away nuks" some other time in the next few months.

No nuks for you!

I'm entering a trend of only posting when a sister-in-law harasses me.  Oops.  Hi Janelle!

Let's see now.

The husb has been enjoying his new job and is spending about 1/4 of his work hours in Chicago.  He's loving his new Prius and the money it's saving in gas.  Plus it has satellite radio and bluetooth and all that jazz.  He got horribly sick this week in Chicago, made it home Wednesday and was quarantined until he went in to the office today.  The boys are excited to be able to snuggle him again.

Me: I've been me.  You know.  I'm actually feeling a bit lately but am still having a biopsy done next month to do one last check for celiac disease.  I've also been digging into family tree stuff this week and found some neat stuff.

Ev: He's almost done learning the alphabet!  Next week is Z and he's doing so well.  I'm a proud mama.  He is totally obsessed with the Disney show Phineas and Ferb right now and can turn it on both the tv and the iPad.  He likes to pop out of bed right away at 7 (he must stay in his room until then), snatch the iPad and watch a show before Callum and I are up.  He still adores all arts and crafts and all social activities.  The kid begs to go to a friend's house or playgroup every day of the week.

Cally: NO NUKS!  I decided I was tired of waking up to retrieve nuks in the middle of the night for a two year old, so I snipped one of them.  He was pretty heartbroken that his "nums bowken!" but it is the very very rare occasion now that he asks for one.  He loves to irritate his brother by turning off the tv, sitting in his chair, and sitting on his bed.  lol.  He's a stinker for sure!  Brothers... He is completely obsessed with tractors right now and every time we go to the library, we pick up a couple new books for him.  He can read us the Digger book and it's pretty awesome.  He sings Twinkle Little Star and it's the cutest thing I've ever heard but I have yet to capture it on video.  Must do that....  Whenever I set food out/change his diaper/finish a task (or he does), he says "there you go!"  Love that kid.  He's also a mischievous little booger though.  The other day as we were leaving playgroup, he managed to open two doors before I could help Everett out of the bathroom and run around the community center.  Kid is seriously going to give me a heart attack.

Now for some visuals.

Everett's dancing


Everett being a sweet big brother

And Callum's birthday party!

French Sweaters

Hi Janelle!  :)
I finally got around to putting these gorgeous french sweaters on the boys and forcing them to let me play mamarazzi.  And they appeased me!!!  Check out these gorgeous kids!

And one silly shot:

DIY Montessori Color Tiles

For free!

I have been looking up montessori toys lately and am horrified by the prices, so I started looking up tutorials for making some of them myself.  One of the easiest projects seemed to be color tiles, so I decided to give it a go.  I got really motivated to do it when my in-laws dropped off a bunch of balsa wood for us to use.  Perfect!  All I needed was some paint swatches and my handy jar of mod podge and I was on my way.
I also thought that since I was going to be chopping paint swatches and mod podging for the afternoon, I might as well go ahead and make this project double as a matching game too.

First, I cut out alllll those paint swatches and lined them up on the balsa wood.

As I went along mod podging, I realized I had a bowing issue...

I fixed it by cutting out all the pieces and then using clothespins as little vises to hold the colors down while they dried.

And painted another layer of mod podge on top.

Then, to create the matching game, I went on to my second set of paint swatches and mod podged them to the clothespins.

Et voila!

I think to start out, I might cut it down to three or four shades per color rather than six.  Everett was a little overwhelmed by so many pieces and Callum tried to bite them all.... I see lots of fun in the future with this game though!  I love that it can be open-ended or I can ask Everett (or Callum) to do certain things like group all the yellows or line them up by shade.

Life in general, February style

I know, you were expecting daily posts from this whole GF/DF two week trial thing, but here's the situation. I changed my mind.  I actually did go dairy free for about 12 days with no difference whatsoever, so I'm back on dairy as of today.  Because if it makes no difference, why lose those calories when I need them?
I am also still eating gluten.  Much reduced quantities, but I've been eating some.  Even though my initial celiac test came back negative, in the case that my doctor decides I need a biopsy, I have to be consuming gluten.  I talked with a dietitian today about celiac/gluten intolerance and didn't learn much that I hadn't already figured out.  But it was nice to talk with her about it.  After that meeting, I went and got gobs more blood stolen from my poor little vein for more testing.  I'm not even sure of what's being tested this time, but I know they are at least doing a genetic typing to see if I have the DQ types seen in people with celiac.  I've been learning of other autoimmune diseases within my genetic family so I brought that up and some more tests were ordered.  Which is why I got like seven vials sucked from my vein today.  So much blood was removed from my arm that when she was done, I realized my hand was purple.
ANYWAY.  Enough of that.  I need to figure out how to calm my brain down, step away from google, and adjust my attitude.

In light of that better attitude, here are some pictures of my beautiful boys:

This is how Callum kisses.

And Everett